Vaccination - Ouch!

Lucky me I've been traveling the last few years and lucky me that in Portugal we have a good coverage of vaccination (plus lucky I've Eva). Because of all that today I only got three vaccinations. And before we leave I'll get three boosters of them.

Diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis, hepatitis A and B, measles, yellow fever, typhoid fever, rabies and tick-borne encephalitis are the diseases I should be a bit more protected now and for the next couple years. Today it was the first injection for the latter three of the list. Rabies needs four injections to be effective for 10 years, tick-borne encephalitis needs three. They wanted also to give me the japanese encephalitis one but I thought would not be needed.

Well, apart of this we will need to have emergency antibiotics or similar for malaria, diarrhea and maybe other things. At the hospital they gave me a paper with medication to take with me, just in case. Well, just in case I've Eva, I let her to take care of me (and us).

The giving away process

These days I'm in the process of listing and photographing every possible thing in my apartment and putting up ads to sell or give them away. Not always easy, especially with the bigger items not from Ikea (and thus a bit more expensive)... So today, someone came over to have a look at my chest of drawers I've been using for about 60% of my clothes. He liked it, and.... "can I take it straight away?" oh yes of course.... so I throw out my clothes, we carry the thing downstairs, and it's sold. 400 Fr in my pocket.
And the result is on the picture.... where am I going to sleep?? :-)

Support a meal - part 1

Yesterday it was my birthday. As we don't want more things, instead of presents we asked for supporting a meal somewhere in the world, chosen from mapa mundi. Below is the result:


In case you missed the opportunity and you are willing to support a meal somewhere else, there might be another chance to do so. Keep tuned.

PS: We do not promise to go exactly to all these places but we will think of you and send a picture once we are at the nearest point of it.

Getting into travel mode

When preparing a trip like that, there are some very practical, "everyday life" things, like getting your body ready for travel. Examples:
1. Trying to convince my skin to get used to that nice cream that one can use for face and body (very practical, just one container instead of 2...). Result: my face doesn't like it but with a bit of patience we're getting there. Until then, I walk around with red spots on my face....
2. Getting my eyes used to new contact lenses. They say one can leave them in for 6 days and nights in a row. Result: Very good! No bothering with them in night trains and when I can't wash my hands.
Some other aspects, like my very sensitive scalp, need still to be addressed....

Trip extra-financing

One does not leave for a trip like ours without having a certain budget and counting to be able to survive for a certain amount of time not only during the trip but also after it, when still searching for a job, when renting an apartment and having a caution to give, before receiving again the first salary.

Eva and me consider to have enough to travel for a while, we hope until we get tired of it. In any case there are always ideas to get a bit more money and at same time evolve friends and other people with the trip.

Below a list of possible things we might or might not do for raising the budget:
- Support a meal at X - people write down in a envelope where wants the contribution to be used. Inside the envelope puts the contribution and a small word which will be read only when we arrive to X.
- 2010 world calendar - people buy in advance a calendar which will be sent in December with a selection of pictures of places already visited
- Buy a postcard/coin from a certain country, which will be sent when we arrive there


More classic ideas:
- Publishing a book about the trip
- Write column to a newspaper
- Make a blog and put advertisements into it

Other ideas?

Une bonne raison de voyager à deux (inspiré par mon collègue Jean)

Imagine qu'on se promène dans la forêt, et on a tout à coup faim, mais rien à manger, alors si on est à deux, on peut tuer un varan http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varanus (ce qu'on ne peut pas faire tout seul). Puis il suffit d'enlever la peau, de l'embrocher et de le cuire sur le feu.

Voilà une bonne raison de ne pas voyager tout seul.

Jean, je t'enverrai une carte postale quand on aura tué notre premier varan...

2 months to go!

Yep, about 60 days, as February is short. I start to get excited. Still many things to do but also several others done. Hopefully Daniel will take the apartment and most of the furniture. It will make things easier. My apartment rent is now 1500chf and a raise is expected due renovation of the kitchen. I hope will not be a problem for Daniel. Other people is interested in few of the furniture, but they don't stop asking for cheaper price when I'm making already 50% off the price of new. And furniture is not a car, it gets much less used with the time than a polluting engine.

What is taking time to decide is about the insurance. Basically it exists worldnomads which makes a long trip travel insurance. BUT, their trip ends when you come back to your home country, no matter how long more the policy lasts. It shits if I decide to visit my family. Then they say you can buy shorter policies and renew. But they also write that they stop any cover as soon as policy ends. In my understanding, if you are in hospital when the policy ends, they will not pay, as it ended. If you renew, they say it was a existing problem, so no cover. Other insurance multi-trip exist BUT, maximum trip time is 31 or 45 days. Not easy. Insurers don't really insure you. In Portugal I think not find any long trip insurance either. I'll try next week.

Eva is also searching for people for her apartment who would take the furniture as well. Is nice and shity work at same time. But knowing who will take the apartment makes you feel better.

And it is now public that I'm leaving. The gym was the last to know. I told them on wednesday. David accepted (well, no other chance) but was sad as my class is going very well, with more than 25 people going each week.

Dinner time!